Strength
by clarebear2212
Summary: Since sasuke left sakura has felt empty inside, no matter how hard she tries she just cant forget him...until someone who knows all about pain and trying to forget returns to konoha. SakuXGarra
1. Chapter 1

hi! haha this is my first so be nice...or else :

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto :( **

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_**She ran, panting, down the dark street. Her feet pounding the ground lightly, perspiration making her pink hair cling to her forehead. The darkness wrapped around her slight pale body, shadows twisting across her skin. She ran blindly with no thought other than her goal. Her heart raced along with her feet, as she thought of the person she was racing forward to. Racing to save him, to stop him, to love him. **_

_**Her heart twisted with familiar pain, as she rounded a sharp corner. She loved him, but he did not love her. Her teeth clenched together in anxiety. Would that be enough? Would her love be able to stop him? Her determination hardened and she increased her pace. **_

_**It would have to be enough…**_

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_**He stood in the moonlight gazing down, his eyes searching the small framed photo that rested on his desk. He clenched his backpack tightly as he raked the photo ruthlessly with his ebony gaze. A small mirthless laugh escaped his lips as he realized that no matter how many times he searched the faces of his comrades, frozen forever in a moment of happiness, he could no longer find a reason to remain here. Here where he woke up each day to weakness. His weakness. Here where no matter how hard he trained, no matter how much his muscles strengthened, no matter how much his chakra increased, it would never be enough. **_

_**His eyes lingered one last time on the faces of his closest and only friends in the whole world, naruto with his idiotic toothy smile, kakashi sensei with his face half hidden, somehow managing to smile with his eyes, sakura…**_

_**He turned his face sharply away from her sweet grin and slammed the picture down smartly before turning on his heel and crossing the floor of his small apartment in quick easy strides. The door clocked closed softly behind him as he turned his back on all that was familiar and safe. He slipped unnoticed down the streets of konoha, relieved and at the same time a part of him was disappointed that no one was around to stop him…**_

_**He shook the thought off quickly. He didn't wish to be stopped.**_

_**Not tonight…**_

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_**Her heart beat painfully against her chest as she rounded another dusky corner and came face to face with her goal.**_

_**Her feet slowed, her heart stuttered, her breath stopped. His hard dark eyes clashed with her pained emerald ones. Her breath finely found her as his gazed pierced her and she gasped. His pack was filled and secured around him, as well as the kunai holster in its usual place. **_

"_**Why are you prowling around here in the middle of the night?" he asked shortly**_

_**She flinched slightly. Her panic was overwhelming but she managed a reply, "I knew you would come this way…if you were going to leave…so I came." **_

_**His eyes never left hers as he said, "Get lost…go back to sleep." His voice was empty of any emotion.**_

_**Panic was taking over now. She was loosing him. **_

_**He moved forward and smoothly passed her, close enough to brush her clothes. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him. The scent she loved. It was of pine needles and wind and all things wild.**_

_**She squeezed her eyes shut. Afraid that if she opened them the tears she had been holding in would break through and he would remember seeing her for the last time as a blubbering little fool.**_

_**His footsteps moved steadily away form her. She dug her fingernails into her palms, grateful for the distraction of one pain to lessen another. **_

_Tap_

_Tip_

_**His footsteps echoed**_

_Tap_

_Tip_

_**She flinched with every step, biting her lip to keep from crying, screaming.**_

_Tap_

_Tip_

_**She only had to endure a little longer. Blood flowed from where her nails bit into her soft little palms. **_

_Tap_

_Tip_

_**Suddenly words burst from between her lips, "I may have friends and family…but if you were to leave…" **_

_**His footsteps halted. She almost cried out in delight.**_

"_**To me...it would be the same as your loneliness" the words just kept coming now and she let her tears flow as she turned to face the boy she loved. The boy who only thought of her as a nuisance. Annoying. **_

_**She could care less. "I love you with all my heart!" she shouted the words she had been so afraid to even whisper before…so very afraid. **_

"_**Stay with me," she sobbed, "or take me with you if you can't stay here." She really was blubbering now, sniffing and hysterical wiping at the tears that would not stop coming. **_

"_**You really are…" his voice was low and steady. **_

_**She stopped wiping at her tears and looked up at him as he turned to face her with that heartbreakingly beautiful face of his. Her hopes soared.**_

"_**Annoying." He smirked that familiar smirk. Her green watery eyes widened as her hope died in flight.**_

"_**Don't leave!" she shouted. She was all panic now, anything to keep him from leaving. "If you leave I'll scream!"**_

_**He moved, faster than she could follow. She felt his presence behind her. She breathed in his wild scent and felt his warm breath on the back of her neck.**_

"_**Sakura…Thank you." His lips moved next to her ear so close thy brushed her skin when he spoke, a lovers whisper. She reveled in the feeling…**_

_**A sharp pain in the back of her head, and she fell into darkness…**_

"_**Sasuke…"**_

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I woke in a cold sweat with his name still on my lips. My lip quivered and my eyes stung with tears. I hated myself for it.

I sat up in the moonlight and buried my face in the sheets, rumpled from my restless sleep. Why couldn't I forget about him? It had been over seven months and still the thought of him brought tears to my eyes. I was weak.

I clenched the sheets with knuckles bruised from lady tsunade's demanding training. My body had gotten strong with her help. All my girlish softness had been turned into lean muscle and my powers of medical jutsu were growing as well. I had grown tall and I was very cunning in battle, using all my strength to their greatest advantage. Yes my body was now strong but inside I was still so weak.

My sheets absorbed the last of my tears. I laughed bitterly as I looked at the dark stains they had left_. _My conscience wasn't kind to me.

"_Sakura you idiot, why do you waste your tears on him? He's forgotten all about you" _

"I know… " I whispered to myself. I felt a familiar surge of anger bubble up inside me towards sauske. My jaw tightened and I flew out of bed, pausing only to pull some shorts on to accompany the black tank top I had slept in. I had been through this damn cycle too may times by now and i knew I would get no rest tonight.

I grinned slightly at the thought of prowling konoha in the dark with only the moonlight and the wind in my face. i needed a release for this anger and the best way I knew was through training. I ruffled my short hair and stretched to wake myself a little, glanging at the clock that sat on my nightstand.

3:45 am.

Good. Nobody would be around at this hour. I had the training field all to myself.

Throwing open my bedroom window, I leaned out onto the windowsill and welcomed the night with its cool breeze and calming skies. There was just a sliver of the moon left tonight but my eyesight was keen. It would be enough.

I paused only to smile at the thought of the oncoming night before I lept out my window, away from the bad memories and towards the thrill of the sleeping city streets below me.

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**Hope you liked it! I had a lot of fun writing this and actualy put a considerable amount of time into it so please be nice! Im not against constructive criticism though...**


	2. Chapter 2

So I heard this joke once when I was about eh 12

**So I heard this joke once when I was about eh 12? I used to sit next to these kids on the bus who were always excessively loud and tended to drool a lot, consequently making them even louder as they screeched in laughter then drooled some more. Anyway it went something like this…two men walked into a bar…the third one ducked. **

**Id never paid much attention to what they said before, but this time I didn't get annoyed by their caveman-like screech-drool cycle…I could only think **_**"I don't get it?"**_

**Fast forward 5 years to me sitting on my bed doing nothing in particular when this sudden, glorious realization smacks me right in the face…"two men walked into a **_**BAR**_** and the third one **_**DUCKED**_**!!"**

**I've never felt so smart and then so utterly and pathetically stupid in my entire life. Eh you win some you lose some :p**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto

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_**Sakura**_

I let the air caress my body and trail cool fingertips through my hair. The starlight set a luminous glow to my skin as I fell through the night.

"_Yes,"_ I thought idly, _"This is what I need."_

I landed lightly on the street below my window and let the balls of my feet roll forward to lessen the impact. I stood and breathed in a crisp scent of dewy grass and earth. Already I could feel my anger and anxiety dissipating into the quiet calm of the night, broken only by the chirp of a cricket or the whisper of the gentle wind. I don't know how long I stood there, unmoving as a statue, not wanting to disturb the tranquil stillness. I wanted to lose myself in it and forget about every hurt I had ever suffered, every scar, every tear, every scream muffled by my pillow. Every part of me that ached when I thought about Sasuk-

No!

"_I will not think about him!"_ I thought ferociously as I tensed my muscles.

I started down the street towards the training field, looking down the long straight stretch of road before me, illuminated only by the small sliver of the moon. I paused, considering the path ahead. All straight narrow lanes lined with flat smooth stones with no variations in elevation or scenery. I had walked this same way every single day for the past sixteen years. It would be a boring trip.

Tonight I wanted to be tested, pushed. I wanted to leave no room for unpleasant thoughts of the past.

I spared a single glance at the apartment building across from mine, enough to take in the height and width. The first was considerable, the latter not so much. The slight smile that touched my lips was feral. I wasted mo more time on thought before I rushed at the side of the building.

By carefully directing the precise amount of chakra to my feet I was easily able to reach the top, deviating from my path only to bypass a window or two as these would not hold up to the force of my pounding feet. I delighted in the rush of the air past my ears and the feeling of being unstoppable as a freight train. It felt pretty badass. I did not slow my furious rate when I reached top, instead running the length of the roof before directing more chakra to my legs.

I saw the thirty foot gap between this, and the adjacent building coming on and I was ready for it as my feet poised carefully on the edge of the roof, my thigh muscles bunching. I let out a small wild cry of delight as I sprang forward into nothingness.

I soared effortlessly over the gap and landed with a small thud on the opposite roof. I was just about to ready myself for another daredevil dash and leap when suddenly a shingle slipped from beneath my foot.

"Ahhh!" an involuntary scream escaped my lips as I lost my footing and slid down the incline. Sharp tiles scraped my calves, thighs and back as I tumbled after that damn shingle.

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_**Garra**_

I watched with my sleepless eyes as a lone cloud sailed across the desert sky, obscuring the bright glow of the stars and winking them out one by one, extinguishing their fire. Soon enough though they reappeared just as bright and cheerful as they had been before, aloof and beautiful shards of diamond resting in the velvet clutches of darkness.

They twinkled down at me, mocking.

My fingers curled into hard fists and I looked down at them. I observed the smooth skin unblemished by scar or scratch, the slim but strong fingers that curled inward. These were the hands that had taken so many lives. These were the hands that had crushed the bodies of my enemies and the innocent as well. These were the hands that had made crimson blood flow in rivers and fall like rain.

The bright glow of the lives I had snatched away would never return.

A grimace of disgust fell over my features. That was the creature I had been. I would no longer give into the beast that lurked within me. Each time it strained to rise and take over my mind, my body, my very soul, I would beat it down. I could never let down my guard, could not even sleep, for the demons influence over me was strong, its whispers of power and promises of greatness were impossibly seductive. It offered the one thing that I could never hope to obtain from any other source.

Acceptance. The demon needed me. No other soul in this world offered me this, the thing I most wanted though I hated myself for it. I knew it made me weak, this longing for human contact and affection. I knew that I did not need it, it was purely out of selfish desire, not necessity and as long as I had desire for a thing, no matter haw small, my demon would use it against me.

He was waiting inside me, even now for a crack in my resolve, a niche in my mental armor of iron determination that he could slip his claws savage claws into and tear apart.

Desire for human closeness was a sizable niche.

I let my gaze wander across the endless dunes of shifting sand, turned a gray blue color in the moonlight. The desert was freezing at night but I was quite accustomed to it by now, the cool wind that whipped past my nose would have been bitter as ice to anybody else foolish enough to prowl the desert at night. Few enough dared its treacherous sinkholes, steep dunes, and blazing heat during the daytime hours.

I absent mindedly watched a desert owl circle over head in search of food. The reason why I was here in the desert to begin with was because of the solitude of the majestic waste land. Few found the eternal stretch of sand and the harsh climate as enticing as I, and I was glad of it.

I was here to train myself to let go of my foolish longings that were all too dangerous to me, and those around me. To become comfortable in my solitude. True, I had spent most of my life distant from those around me, but then I had let Shukaku, my inner demon rule me. That had been a mistake, a great big, steaming of pile of mistake, and many had paid for it.

Now I was starting fresh, learning from scratch how to be around people, without Shukaku ruling my actions this time. It was much harder.

_"Affection for anything is dangerous and a weakness that enimies can easily exploit."_ I silently mused to myself.

All too soon there would come a time when I would need to have as few weaknesses as possible, when I filled the position of Kazekage.

I smirked as I recalled my initial reluctance to the elders request. How could _I_, a cold blooded killer with a dangerous demon laying in wait inside me, be fit to make political decisions that would affect the lives of thousands? How could I protect those thousands? How could these shinobi, so experienced in the ways of the world, so wise and influential, trust me with this great responsibility? It made no sense.

It was while I was sitting awake one night, sleep being forever deprived of me, that I realized the elders did not trust me. I was a weapon to them at best. Granted, a very powerful weapon at best, but still a tool. My reign as Kazakage would be a joke. I would be a figurehead, a puppet with the elders pulling my strings.

I had felt anger at first, but quickly pushed it away as Shukaku lifted his head expectedly. Anger was a dangerous emotion. As the night had worn on, I simply sat and turned the thought of Kazekege over in my mind until it was an all consuming object of my contemplation. Should I? Or shouldn't I? The reasons not to seemed stacked high enough to breach the heavens, while I could find no such reason to comply with the elders request.

Sometime during the night _he_ had entered my thoughts, Uzamaki Naruto. He had a demon inside him as well, just as blood thirsty, just as dangerous, just as close to taking over. People had shunned him and cast him out all his life, looked down on him and feared him... yet...

It was Narutos fondest and most treasured dream to become Hokage of his own village, Konoha: The Village Hidden In The Leaves. When we had first met he had infuriated and puzzled me. Here was a boy just like myself, feared and shunned by his own neighbors, who's most fervent wish was do his best to protect and serve those same people who had made his life hell.

Naruto had taught me much. He had taught me that bonds were important and that friendship was something to be treasured and protected. Naruto taught me that having ties to people was not always a one way path to being hurt, and that by having no ties at all, striving not to, was not strength. He had taught me to be human again.

In the end it was the thought of Naruto that had steered me to what I thought to be the right decision. I would become Kazekage, and I would try, by protecting innocent, to make up for my sins which numbered as many as the stars.

When I told my brother, Kankuro, and my headstrong sister, Temari, of my decision they were...well calling it doubtful would be a gross understatement.

It was almost comical as Kankuros voice had echoed my own thoughts and conclusions of the night before.

"I hate to say this but," he had started carefully, "You're no more than a weapon of mass destruction to them. For you to split off from us now...it will only be harder for you." Temari had nodded, her light brown, poofy pony tails bobbing.

But I was set in my decision. I could not be swayed. And so now here I was roaming the sands, trying to master the beast inside me, that I might be fit to become a Kazekage that would be respected and acknowledged throughout history. That one day I might be free to know the bonds that Naruto had spoken of.

I sighed at the impossible thought, the breath whooshing softly out of my lungs to be carried away on the dry desert winds. It took every ounce of my strength and self control to keep Shikaku dormant. Even being in the presence of others was difficult; let alone being close to them. So for now I must keep my distance and learn to become my own master, then and only then could I let myself feel the ties that Naruto had spoken of.

I looked around at my surroundings, surprised to suddenly feel the presence of a great number of people near by. As I glanced at the terrain a sudden realization hit me. Thoughts of Naruto had steered my feet in the direction of his village, Konohah.

I sniffed the air, my senses heightened by the cursed demon within me. I smelled sun baked stone and greenery, I smelled the sweat of sleeping people. By straining my sensitive ears I was even able to hear the quite breath of those slumbering. Indeed I was quite close. Too close to civilization to be safe.

I was turning back towards the solace of the many sands before me when I felt the flare of a familiar chakra. Who ever released it was distressed.

I felt a frown tug at the corners of my lips. I knew that Naruto was off training with that old pervert sage, and I was aware that Sasuke had left Konoha to join Orochimaru in his quest for revenge.

_"Whose chakra did I feel just now then?"_ I thought to myself.

I was torn. The cool quiet of the desert beckoned at my back, I had training to complete and the way to distance myself from others was not though screwing around in a populated area. I really had no time for this...but as I turned away I realized that I could never become the Kazekage I hoped if I abandoned a person in need at my own convenience. That was something the old me would have done.

Damn.

I swung around swiftly, sand flying in my wake as I sped towards Konoha, towards dangerous temptation, towards that vaguely familiar presence.

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**Uh ohhhh cliff hanger! Sorry couldn't help it. its in my nature to be cruel muahaha**

**Well you know the drill, read and review please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Now I realize that I haven't updated in a while…hate me if you wish muahahaha**

**Chapter 3**

**Sakura**

I squashed my initial panic at the gut wrenching free fall I was taking and managed to ignored the fact that my heart was about to fly out of my chest. Panicking never did anyone any good; it clouded rational judgment which could often be the defining line between life and death. As a shinobi I knew better than any that that line was impossibly thin and I had faced death right in the ugly face many times, hell it was practically in the job description.

"_Yup plenty of great shinobi have died honorable deaths in the heat of battle and there is no way in hell I'm gonna be remembered as the ninja who died from clumsiness… not the way I wanna go down_." I thought to myself with a sarcastic grin. I managed to flip over onto my back in time to see the edge of the roof coming on fast. I would have to be quick about this. Biting my lip I ignored the feeling of sharp stone fragments tearing into the soft skin of my thighs and back and concentrated on my goal, the gutter jutting out from over the lip of the roof. _"Come_ _on"_ I thought almost impatiently, _"Just a little more."_

Suddenly my legs shot into empty space and I felt gravity start to pull my body toward the streets below.

"_Now!"_

I twisted my body from the hips as my torso followed my feet into thin air and winced only slightly as the rough metal of the gutter scraped my side and left cheek. I was completely over the edge now and for a split second the moonlight illuminated the ground below and I could see exactly how far I would fall if I screwed this up.

The sight was less than encouraging.

My hands flew out and grabbed for the edge of the gutter, and I barley had time to sigh my relief before the momentum of my action had my face flying at the side of the stone building. Almost without thinking my abdominal muscles clenched as I swung my feet out in front of me and felt the impact reverberate through the soles of my feet. I had to squash my panic once again as I felt the gutter I was holding fast to groan and sag dangerously. A curse slipped past my lips as I felt my grip begin to loosen.

"Of course," I groaned though clenched teeth, "God forbid something go right tonight." I really hadn't banked on all this when I woke angry from my nightmare just moments ago. All I wanted was to blow off some steam on some routine training procedures. But then again maybe this was, in some ways better than training. Here there was real danger, real excitement, here was a good opportunity to take her mind off of sas-

I shook my head as if to shake off the bad memories and concentrated on how much the gutter was sagging now. In a few short moments it would break loose whether I was safely on solid ground once more or not.

I sprang into action, bunching the muscles in my thighs I tensed for a moment then pushed off of the stone wall, using the powerful movement to give me momentum for my next move. My well trained arms hardly protested when I used them as a fulcrum to lift my entire body, simultaneously curving my back and swinging my feet backwards behind my head I heard the metal gutter squeal out its protest. I paused for a moment, my body in a perfectly streamlined handstand on the edge of the roof, before finally using my arms to push off and bring my feet back to solid ground. None too soon as I heard the gutter I had been hanging from moment before let out one final metallic groan before dislodging its self from the lip if the roof and tumble into the night, loudly scraping the walls of the building before landing with a resounding crash below.

I leaned over the edge of the roof to carefully peer at its crash site below and take in the twisted and jagged remains of the gutter still hanging pathetically to the side of the stone wall. I let out a long low whistle… dang what a mess. "I wonder if I'll be held responsible for this?" I silently mused into the night as a breeze sang across my skin, reminding me through the stinging sensation that I was still injured. I bent to tend to my many scrapes and scratches when I heard the dry scratching sound of many windows being opened and the mummer of angry voices from below me.

"Well in any case," a small grin flirted around the corners of my lips, "I really am in a hurry." Deciding my wounds would have to wait I stood. My eyes were alert this time as I made my way silently across the rooftop.

**Sakura's thoughts on the matter**

When I think back on things now, that damn shingle was the start of all my problems. It was the first domino to fall, the key to a clusterfuck of compromising situations and unfortunate coincidences… or perhaps not so unfortunate. Anyhow it was the shingle that caused me to slip and fall, and if I hadn't fallen I wouldn't have panicked, if I hadn't panicked HE wouldn't have sensed my distressed chakra and come running like some white night on his high horse, and even so I might have been alright if I hadn't been on the alert and had my eyes peeled, I might have dismissed the flash of movement I saw as unimportant. After all it was less of a movement and more of a simple shifting darkness, a shadow moving about the deeper darkness like a panther in the night. But as I've said, God forbid something go right.

My head jerked to the left suddenly as a sudden movement invaded my field of vision. No not a movement, it was more of a shift in the consistency of the shadows on a neighboring rooftop, like a dark shape moving beneath a flat black lake… _"Or a shinobi in the shadows_" I breathed out slowly and forced my eyes away from the movement and back to the minefield of chipped shingles that was my path, searching while allowing my stride to remain unbroken and natural. Of course tonight of all nights I had forgotten my kunai holster and aside from my fists I was weaponless. Clenching my teeth together I mentally cursed myself for being a dumbass, but that aside I would just have to improvise.

I continued to make my way across the rooftop, appearing, I hoped, for all the world to have dismissed the motion as a trick of the night as I was wont to do from the beginning. Hopefully that's all it was, my eyes playing tricks on my stressed mind, but I had to be sure. Head downcast I continued to cast my eyes this way and that and as I neared the opposite edge of the roof I found what I was looking for.

I allowed my left leg to go slack and my knee banged hard against the stone shingles. I winced but dismissed the discomfort; it was all part of my plan. Crouching down as if to inspect the wound I hunched so that my true intent would not be revealed. I felt the scrapes on my back pull tight at the movement of my shoulders and they screamed in protest but I ignored that as well, my attention was on a large jagged shingle that had become dislodged from its mortar just to the right of my knee. My fingers curled around the cool hard surface and I took one last deep breath before suddenly rising from my crouch and whirling in one smooth motion as fast as I was able, which, I thought, was pretty damned fast. My hand grasping the stone shingle snapped out, the wrist twisting to direct the improve weapon with a blast of chakra to give it a little extra juice as it flew out of my hand and sliced through the air faster than the eye could follow, straight for the suspicious movement on the neighboring rooftop.

My shingle disappeared into the offending darkness while I dropped to a crouch once again ready to dodge a counterattack. I listened for the sound of the shingle shattering against a solid surface or any noise that might betray a person pain. I was expecting either, could have handled both, but I heard neither, only a long and pregnant silence greeted my strained ears.

Goosebumps prickled their way across my skin and I felt the tiny hairs on my arm stand on end as my whole body tensed. "Shit." I breathed. Even as I watched a dark form disengaged its self from the shadows and stepped into the pale starlight.

It was the form of a man, that much I could tell, even with his body still half shrouded in darkness I could still make out the firm set of broad shoulders and the arrogant tilt of his jaw. He was slight, lean muscle rippled beneath loose fitted traveling clothes, and though my assessment was brief, didn't seem to be much taller than my miserable 5 feet 4 inches, more boy than man really. But still there was something in the way he stood, the flash of white teeth in the darkness as he thrust his right hand toward me in the half light of the moon that made these simple gestures seem threatening, menacing even. I narrowed my eyes, _"Like a_ _cat_" I thought, _"or some wild beast that lurks in dark places."_ With my eyes busy elsewhere the last thing I noticed was what was held firmly in the hand that was stretched towards me, as if in offering.

My brows drew together slightly in concern. My shingle was clutched in his light fingered grasp. _"He must have known. He had to have known. Nobody could have been caught off guard and still catch that thing."_ There was no way. I tried to convince myself of this as I stood slowly, partly because I had grown a bit vain of my abilities… but mostly because I didn't want to think about the alternative. The night air was suddenly icy to me instead of pleasantly cool and it seemed to sweep right through me as the dark figure moved forward once more, coming to stand fully in view still with his arm outstretched towards me.

I gasped openly and my eyes widened as I took in the shock of unruly red hair that curled slightly past his ears, the kanji sign of love on his forehead must have been hidden beneath that same untidy hair that he was now swiping out of his eyes with his free hand, but when the huge gourd strapped to his back was still there I was sure I wasn't mistaken. He was older now, I could see it in the sharper angles and planes of his face and his wiry muscles held the promise of strength. He had changed, but still I knew him when my searching gaze locked with his sleepless jade glare.

"G-Garra." I finally found breath enough to pathetically stumble over his name. My voice was little more than a whisper and his face was a blank mask, pale in the moonlight.

His expression remained the same cool indifference as he spoke and the joke he attempted did nothing to lift the hard slash of his mouth in anything like a smile. "Konoha seems a bit less hospitable since I've been away." His voice was the same, betraying no hint of emotion, husky and deep like his words were tumbling over gravel. He still held the shingle but now his arm dropped casually to his side and with a flick of his wrist sent her would-be weapon tumbling into the darkness of the streets below.

I felt my heart jump into a frantic gallop as fear blossomed in my gut. I didn't even try to keep my cool, let alone control my emotions. Looking into the eyes of the boy, no the _monster,_ who had once come so close to killing me I felt the terror spread in me like a disease, until that single emotion consumed me and my adrenaline screamed for my muscles to fight or flee.

I chose, of course, to run like hell.

**Ahh the fateful meeting at last. Not what you were expecting? Oh come on, she can't just fall into his arms like a lovesick puppy. That would be no fun **** the hunt must commence!**


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